The concept and measurement of ethnic community

Abstract

This paper first examines why the concept of civil society should find its empirical expression in the concept of civic community. I then elaborate the concept of civic community by making a distinction between vertical and horizontal relations as two constitutional elements of civic community. I argue that in a multicultural democracy the cleavages in civil society are overcome because the ethnic elites form part of the civic elite. The concepts of ethnic organisation, organisational density, organisational filling and institutional completeness are operationalised as indicators of the degree of organisation of an ethnic community. The paper distinguishes between bridging and bonding organisations and defines a number of network concepts as indicators of social capital of an ethnic community. Finally we develop some measures for the circulation and diffusion of ethnic mass media and of the social trust within an ethnic community, between ethnic communities and between an ethnic community and the dominant community.